


Women's Intuition

by spinner_atropos



Category: The Real Ghostbusters
Genre: Crushes, Gen, defending your own, my hero, women's intuition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2019-02-07 05:56:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12834750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spinner_atropos/pseuds/spinner_atropos
Summary: Found this in the bottom of my WIP folder.From years of being one of the front desk ladies in a building with absolutely no security at all.E/J if you squint.





	Women's Intuition

**Author's Note:**

> Found this in the bottom of my WIP folder.
> 
> From years of being one of the front desk ladies in a building with absolutely no security at all.
> 
> E/J if you squint.

Janine's voice carried down to the basement. "I'm _sorry_ , sir, I've already told you that's not what we do." A pause, then in a brassier tone than normal, "We can't help you. No, I don't know anyone who can. I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Her volume and pitch rose out of their normal ranges, and Egon began to feel concerned. He came up the stairs, slinging the straps of the dead proton pack he carried over his shoulders as he opened the door to the main floor. Janine was between the front door and her desk, backing away from the door with a hand extended behind her to feel for the alarm bell. Her normally assertive demeanor had crumbled into outright retreat from the figure that kept pushing her back. It appeared to be a human of average height, bundled in heavy winter clothes. Snow swirled from the still-open front door.

He could hear the voices and feet coming from upstairs, but they were too far away. "You've already been asked to leave," he said, a little more forcefully than he meant--his nerves were still on edge from the afternoon's bust, and he didn't like having their safe haven threatened. He unholstered the thrower of the pack, wishing for a PKE meter to assess the threat.

Peter and Winston appeared on the spiral staircase--Ray opted for the pole--and the figure turned toward Egon. It appeared to be an ordinary Caucasian human male, though oddly haggard and hollow around the eyes, but it immediately turned toward the front door and ran back out into the snow and the dusk.

"Jesus, Egon, what are you doing?" The other three clustered around Janine’s desk while he shut the door--the figure had already disappeared.

He realized a bit late that he was still holding the proton thrower and holstered it, setting the pack on the floor next to the desk. "It doesn't even work," he said half to himself.

Peter seemed torn between indignation and--of all things--amusement. "Yeah, but I've still never seen you go after someone with one like that."

"I wasn't--"

"Where's Janine?" Ray's question made everyone pause. The spiral stairs vibrated with the echoes of footfalls.

"What the hell happened?" asked Winston.

"We heard Janine arguing with the guy and thought we'd better come see. But it was all over by then."

"We've had lots of nuts come through, but none of them have ever scared Janine like that."

"I didn't think she was scared of anything."

Peter looked toward the stairs. "So who's going to go talk to her?"

Three faces turned toward Egon. He looked between them in turn. "Peter, you're the psychologist."

"Uh-uh. She'd tear my head off as soon as look at me."

This was most likely true. "Everyone likes Ray--"

Peter shook his head. "Sure, but she _likes_ you." He didn't like the inflection Peter put on "likes."

He had only once been the target of Janine’s wrath, and didn’t particularly want to repeat the experience, but curiosity was getting the better of him. Ray was right--Janine was normally fearless, even when faced with ghosts and demons. What about one man had frightened her so badly?

He gave Peter a dark look. "You're going to owe me one."

***

Janine was sitting at the dining table, her hands wrapped around a cup of black coffee. She didn't look up, but made a face at the sound of his footsteps. "I'm fine."

"Okay." She started slightly and looked up at him, surprised. Who did she think had been foolhardy enough to follow her? He circled around the table to stand opposite her. "We were concerned about what had happened downstairs."

"It's nothing. I'll be downstairs in just a minute." She sounded defensive.

"Do you think that--person--wasn't human? Something hostile?"

"It was just some guy. He's gone now, I'm fine, and I'll be down in a minute." She glared at him for a moment before returning her gaze to her coffee cup.

He sat down opposite her. "I've never seen you scared of a person before. Surely you have some explanation?"

"Yeah, sure." She sounded dismissive. "The only thing I could tell you is completely unscientific and you of all people would never buy it."

"I'm willing to hear it. What kind of scientist would I be if I were not?"

She curled her fingers to tap her nails against her cup. "The only name I know for it is women's intuition. Maybe men don't have to have it because they're not smaller or weaker or less important than everyone around them. Sometimes you look at someone and you know you should steer clear of him. Not just the obvious crazies, either. Sometimes an ordinary person makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up and all your alarms go off because you somehow _know_ he's bad news. This guy was all kinds of bad news, but I couldn't tell you why."

Egon pondered this for a bit. "Subconscious evaluation of subtle threat signals, perhaps," he finally said. "Body language that you don't realize you're reading."

"Yeah, something like that."

"'All kinds' of bad news--paranormal bad news?"

She shrugged. "Maybe." She finally unclasped her hands from the mug and held them out over the table palm-down. Apparently satisfied, she rose and emptied her untouched coffee cup, rinsing it and putting it in the dish drainer. She said, facing away from him, "Did you threaten him with a proton gun?"

He was still a little surprised himself. Never aiming the proton thrower at another human was a cardinal rule, right after not crossing the streams. "It doesn't even work but--" he said uncomfortably. "--the situation seemed--"

Janine gave him the starry-eyed look he'd become all too familiar with. "Oh, _Egon_." Before he could protest, or try to escape, or even really process what she was doing, she had swooped in on him, kissed him on the cheek, then darted down the spiral stairs. He felt a momentary flush of embarrassment, then pulled himself together and went downstairs as well.

Peter had collared Janine and was walking through the incident with her. Ray was doing a sweep for PKE readings and Winston was watching it all.

"Jeez, man, you look like _you_ need counseling now. What--" His gaze shifted slightly and he smiled. He handed Egon a shop towel. "Better get that off your face before Peter sees it, or you'll never hear the end of it."


End file.
